Emma Swan/During Second Curse
A year later, Emma and Henry are having breakfast in their New York apartment. She answers the door to see a strange man dressed in pirate clothes, who claims to know her. When he attempts to kiss her, she kicks him and ignores his profuse explanations by slamming the door closed. For the past eight months, Emma dates a man named Walsh. While Walsh is away from the table during dinner, the pirate man, Hook, her an apartment address that she must see to know the truth about her family, who desperately need her help. Hook asks her to find him in Central Park when she is ready to talk. Walsh reveals a ring on a dessert platter, which shocks Emma, as she feels marriage is too soon for them, so he promises to wait for her. At home, Henry urges Emma to accept, since Walsh has proven himself to be serious, and won't leave her like his biological father did. The day after, Emma heads to the address, recognizing a dream catcher as Neal's, meaning the apartment is also his, but more shockingly, she finds a camera strap with Henry's name. In a confrontation, Hook exemplifies the strap as proof Emma was once at the apartment a year ago and offers a potion to restore her memories. Instead, Emma has him arrested for assault and criminal harassment. Later, she admits to Henry that the past is keeping her from accepting Walsh, so he sets up a dinner date for them. Out of curiosity, Emma had the photos in the camera copied, and she is stunned that one of them shows herself and Henry in a town called Storybrooke. After bailing Hook out of jail, he pushes Emma into taking the potion, despite that she will have to give up her current life, because knowing the truth is important. She regains her memories from the potion and later learns that her family has been re-cursed by someone powerful. Emma heads to the rooftop with Walsh where she rejects his proposal; citing that she has to take care of past business. Walsh reveals knowledge about the memory potion and violently attacks Emma after turning into a flying monkey, though she shoves him off the roof. In the morning, Emma gives Henry a cover story about Hook and the three head to Storybrooke. She reunites with David and a visibly pregnant Mary Margaret, who both cannot recall anything from the year prior. David and Mary Margaret recount to Emma the last memories they have of the day Pan's curse was stopped and how everyone was presumably sent back to the Enchanted Forest, but they only remember waking up in Storybrooke like it was another regular day. Hook confirms they did indeed go back to their homeland. Mysteriously, some town residents have been disappearing since everyone's return to Storybrooke, and when two more dwarves are reported missing, Emma decides to look into it. The next day, at the diner, she introduces Henry to Mary Margaret as the two women settle for the lie that they were cellmates while incarcerated in Phoenix. Regina, stunned to see Henry, is pulled aside by Emma to be questioned about the new curse, which the mayor denies involvement in. Soon, Emma investigates another missing resident, Little John, who was kidnapped by a winged beast, so she sends David, Hook, and the Merry Men to look for him. She teams up with Regina to lure the townspeople at a town hall meeting into believing the mayor is guilty of casting the new curse. The scheme goes off without a hitch, leaving the two to sleuth out the real criminal by concocting a memory potion to recall the lost year in the Enchanted Forest, but it fails. In another plan, they have Leroy, who is helped them with the town hall ploy, spread the word that Regina is creating a memory potion so whoever drinks it can recall who cursed them. By making the news public, they hope to draw out the crook. In a stake-out, Emma and Regina rush up to the mayoral office when they see someone break in, but the person disappears quickly in green smoke. Afterwards, Emma allows Regina to meet Henry. David and Hook return, reporting that Little John turned into a flying monkey, as they conclude that the Wicked Witch of the West cast the new curse. While Regina keeps Henry company, Emma, David, and Hook search the mayoral office for any evidence the Wicked Witch left behind. David discovers a holly berry in the room and pinpoints the plant's location in the northwestern region past the Toll Bridge. He is called away due to a phone call from Mary Margaret requesting him to come to the apartment and meet their new midwife, Zelena. Due to Emma's insistence, David promptly leaves. As the remaining pair comb the woods near the holly berry bushes, Emma, believing Hook is hiding something, pries him about what happened in the Enchanted Forest, but he refuses to say. The pirate asks if she was considering marrying Walsh. Emma confirms she was, due to being in love, but disappointingly, as usual, the guy of her dreams had secrets and broke her heart. Hook is pleased, remarking that if her heart is broken, it means she is still capable of love. Emma gives him an unsure look before resuming their search for the Wicked Witch. They reach a farmhouse and deduct that someone is living in it. Spotting a storm cellar, Emma prepares to break it open, but on Hook's advice, they decide to regroup with Regina first. Upon opening her phone, she listens to a new message from David, who believes he has cornered the Wicked Witch. After picking up Regina, Emma drives them to the woods to meet up with David. He recounts fighting a version of himself created by the Wicked Witch's magic and killing it with his sword hilt, but both disappeared afterwards. Altogether, they investigate the farmhouse cellar, which is now mysteriously open. Inside, the cell's occupant is gone, but a spinning wheel with strands of spun gold litter the floor; evident proof that Mr. Gold is alive. In a morning meeting at the closed diner, Emma and her allies discuss searching for Mr. Gold while Regina opts to search the farmhouse alone for evidence. Emma delivers breakfast to Henry at the inn. She interests him in going fishing with Leroy for the day, but Henry can tell she is hiding something. He is suspicious about all the old friends she's never mentioned and how people seem to whisper secretively around him. Henry asks for the truth, or else they go home. Receiving a phone call, she is told Neal is recovering in the hospital. Before leaving, Emma asks for Henry's trust until she can tell him everything. While Neal is informed about Mr. Gold, Emma notices a mark on his palm and has Belle research it. She tells Neal that Henry is still amnesiac and reasons it might be best that way. Combing the woods with David, they soon find Mr. Gold. When they ask for the Wicked Witch's identity, he is unable to tell them. David fends off a flying monkey as Emma chases after a fleeing Mr. Gold. She loses track of him, bumping into Neal, so they search together. She tells him about her near engagement while Neal admits he wants her to be happy, even if it's not with him. A call from Belle notifies Emma of the origin of Neal's mark from a key to the vault of the Dark One that he must have used to resurrect Mr. Gold. As a price, the Dark One is revived while the key user will die. Soon after, Neal realizes he and his father are sharing the same body. On his request, she magically forces him of Mr. Gold's body, and he begins to die. At the spur of the moment, Mr. Gold reveals the Wicked Witch's real name—Zelena. As a grieving Emma cradles Neal, he returns her swan necklace; insisting she and Henry can find happiness without him. After his death, she rejoins David to catch Zelena at the apartment, but she is already gone. Lastly, Emma finds Henry, telling him of his father's passing, and that he died a hero. Emma, along with Henry, attend Neal's funeral to pay their respects. Afterwards, at the diner, she lets Hook to take Henry for the day and allow her son to learn about what Neal was like at his age. Shortly after they leave, Zelena storms in; threatening everyone into submission with the Dark One's dagger. Emma, infuriated at her presence, moves to confront the witch, but is held back by Mary Margaret. Zelena publicly reveals herself as Regina's half-sister and forces her sibling into a showdown on Main Street after sundown. Regina, having doubts about Zelena's claims, heads to the vault for evidence of their familial connection. Emma and Mary Margaret follow her there, but are left puzzled when Regina finds proof and abruptly departs without a word. Hopeful of swaying Mr. Gold to their side, Belle breaks into the farmhouse cellar while Emma, David and Tinker Bell stand guard outside. However, the girl rushes out after nearly falling into a trap. An enslaved Mr. Gold delivers a message from Zelena; warning them that she will finish off Regina and they'll pay with their lives if they interfere again. During the evening, on Main Street, Zelena approaches while trailed by Mr. Gold, though Regina is still absent. Emma challenges the witch, who then commands Mr. Gold to fling her aside. At Regina's arrival, the two witches magically spar. She witnesses Regina being thrown into the clock tower by Zelena, who later flees on her broomstick. Emma, David and Mary Margaret rush to check on Regina where they learn Zelena attempted to take her heart, but failed since it's hidden elsewhere. In the aftermath, Emma returns to the inn where Henry is dropped off by Hook. Before leaving, he insists that her son deserves the truth about Neal, though she brushes off his advice. Intending to sharpen her magic skills against Zelena, Emma agrees to be trained by Regina. David and Mary Margaret offer to watch over Henry, but she balks and implies her son thinks they are boring. Instead, she leaves Henry with Hook again. Regina's lesson commences in the vault, though she devises a better way of pushing Emma to excel by trapping her on a bridge walkway. Upping the pressure, Regina deliberately severs the rope and insistently urges Emma to use magic to fix the situation as the entire bridge gives way. At the last minute, Emma surprisingly constructs a makeshift landing out of the bridge planks to save herself; proving just how much power she has since Regina had only wanted her to simply retie the cut rope. They return to the apartment when Hook returns without Henry since he allowed Emma's parents to take him. He fills them in on his day's adventure of helping Ariel find a missing Eric. Emma's parents arrive home with Henry after allowing him to have a test drive using David's truck. Hook details the outcome of Ariel's quest; mentioning she and Eric reunited on Hangman's Island in the Enchanted Forest. With Regina's instruction, Emma is assigned the task of projecting an image in the mirror of Ariel and Eric on Hangman's Island, which she does with success. Before Hook leaves, she tells him that whatever he's not admitting from his year in the Enchanted Forest no longer matters to her. That night, Emma, David, Henry, Mary Margaret and Regina have a meal together at the diner. After Zelena successfully steals Regina's heart, Emma reports for a group seance to open a portal to the land of the dead by using the now defunct candle to talk to Cora about her first-born child's origins. Emma, David, Hook, Mary Margaret and Regina link hands as the portal opens, but Cora refuses to appear. Shortly after the failed experiment, all leave except Mary Margaret, who stays to help Regina clean up. Emma shows off her increasingly powerful magic to Hook, who reacts grumpily when she teleports away his hook, but he refuses to talk about the real reason for his bad mood. Once Belle figures out what spell Zelena is intending to cast, everyone returns to Regina's house just after Mary Margaret was briefly possessed by Cora's spirit. Mary Margaret reveals Cora, while pregnant with another man's child, was once engaged to Leopold, but Princess Eva deliberately wrecked it. In turn, this caused Cora to unwillingly abandon Zelena after birth. As for the ingredients of Zelena's spell, as Belle explains, are for a time spell to alter the past; namely to kill Eva and keep Cora from abandoning her first-born child. Meeting at the inn, Emma, David, Mary Margaret and Regina strategize on how to break the new curse. With the last curse, she recalls believing in magic after touching the fairytale storybook, which triggered her memories of the Enchanted Forest. From this, Regina suggests the key to breaking the curse is for Henry to believe in magic as Emma did. They head to the apartment where the storybook appeared to Mary Margaret during the first curse. As they leave the inn, Henry, certain Emma is lying again, demands the truth. She shuts down the conversation, and he backs down, but not before asking for her set of keys. Searching the apartment, Mary Margaret's "magical" touch yields the book. In a moment with her mother, Emma reiterates how happy she and Henry were in New York, though Mary Margaret knows that was because their memories were gone. Henry is discovered missing from the inn, though Emma quickly tracks him through his phone to the dock. There, she shoots a flying monkey to protect her son. She hands the storybook to him; asking that he believe in magic. Upon touching the book, Henry receives his lost memories back. Zelena chokes the boy and blames Hook for failing to do what she asked. With Regina knocked unconscious, Emma magically scalds Zelena; forcing her to retreat. Henry awakens Regina, who gives him true love's kiss and breaks the new curse. Afterwards, Hook confesses Zelena cursed his lips and ordered him to remove Emma's magic by kissing her. He admits trying to take Henry out of town since Zelena threatened to harm him. Annoyed at his secrets, she tells him off; believing it should be her responsibility alone to protect Henry. She visits Neal's grave with Henry, in which Mary Margaret begins having labor pains.